Virtual Console

On September 29, 2010, Virtual Console for the Nintendo 3DS was announced. It is similar to the Virtual Console for Wii which allowed players to download games from past consoles and play them on the console, except for the fact that it will have Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and classic games (from past Nintendo consoles), as well as games from third-party handheld devices to download. The classic games are playable in 3D, by holding SELECT while loading the game. It was released in a system update on June 7th.

Ambassador Program

When Nintendo announced that the Nintendo 3DS would be getting a price cut in several regions, effective August 12th, they simutaneously announced that any customer that purchased the 3DS before the price cut takes effect would be receiving 10 free Nintendo Entertainment System games, and 10 free Game Boy Advance games, provided that the owner visited the Nintendo eShop before 11:59 PM EST on August 11th. Nintendo called this the Ambassador Program. [7]

The NES games were available to the Ambassadors on September 1, 2011. Nintendo has plans to release updated versions of these games in the future, which will have to be paid for by non-Ambassadors, but will be free for Ambassadors. Nintendo has no current plans to release the GBA titles to the general public anytime soon. The last 5 NES games were revealed in a Tweet sent by Nintendo of America. [8]

Super Mario Bros. (NES)

Donkey Kong Jr. (Arcade/NES)

Balloon Fight (Arcade/NES)

Ice Climber (NES)

The Legend of Zelda (NES)

Wrecking Crew (NES)

NES Open Tournament Golf (NES)

Yoshi (NES)

Metroid (NES)

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES)

Nintendo of Japan later revealed the full list of Game Boy Advance titles on December 14, 2011, and that they would be released two days, on December 16. [9][10] Due to differences in time zones, regions such as Australia and Japan received the games prior to North America and Europe.